MASTER

"Steady, steady," muttered Aya, as they raised their weapons at the doorway, gulping nervously. 

Liang Chen and 2 Marines pointed their rifles at the doorway, breathing rapidly as they thought of the horrifying images and videos they saw. 

Suddenly, the floor underneath gave way, and before the operators could react, a Marine is grabbed by the leg with a grotesque appendage, pulling him up and swaying him wildly in the air. 

"AHH!" screamed the Marine in horror. 

"Open fire!" yelled Ramirez. They opened fire, hitting the appendage wildly. But the skin is as tough as kevlar, and soon the bullets are ricocheted off, flying wildly in the room, hitting into objects and some further ricocheting. 

"CEASE FIRING!" yelled Aya, but she is too slow, one of the Marines fired a rifle grenade, which ricocheted off and landed at the bottom of Henry's feet. 

"Look out!" yelled Captain Gao, pushing him aside. It exploded, the impact pushing Captain Gao far away, landing painfully on the floor. 

"Captain!" yelled Liang Chen, dodging another lunge that came from the floorboard below. 

"He will be fine!" yelled Aya. "Look after yourself first!" 

She and Liu Zhong kept their guns, focusing their sights on the wild appendage throwing the Marine about like a toy doll, with the Marine screaming in terror.

Seizing a chance, she charged, locking her tail on the appendage while clasping her hands around it at the same time. She yelled, using the Exo-suit's powered exoskeleton to further augment her strength, tapping on Cosmic Energy as well, forming a mini tornado around the appendage to give it an upward suction force. 

With a loud "bang", the abomination is yanked out of the floor, throwing it into the ceiling, the creature dropping the Marine in pain, releasing him, sending him crashing into Ramirez. 

Aya looked at the grotesque abomination in front of them. Unlike Deep Dwellers, the creature is humanoid, just unnaturally huge and tall to the point of 4 metres. It lacks a visible mouth, eyes and nose, in fact, its face is completely featureless. It's very well built and strong, sporting muscles that would bring the strongest weight lifters to shame. The appendage is one of its 2 arms, which have elongated themselves.

One of the arms morphed to a giant meat shield, deflecting the bullets shot at it. The other arm morphed into a giant meat hammer, smashing down at Aya. 

Aya charged, throwing fireballs at the creature, drawing her plasma blade, but it was unfortunately knocked out of her hands by an appendage lunge from its other arm. 

Aya pulled out her combat dagger, channeling her Cosmic Energy into it. She dodged, sliding down to avoid a hit, bypassing the creature's defense and arriving within centimetres of its neck. 

She raised her right hand and jumped, quickly slitting its throat, finding the blade to travel much slower, as if its being pulled back by its body. The Cosmic Energy infused blade managing to cut through the thick skin, severing its artery, blue blood spurting out. 

To her shock, the wound soon closed up like its nothing, and before she can react, the hammer smashed into Aya, the impact shattering her Exo-suit, smashing her into a wall. 

Aya's 120kg body mass left a huge cavity in the wall, her armour falling off her, the pieces of armour falling on the floor. 

She coughed, blood staining the insides of the armour plates, feeling strength leaving her body finding herself unable to tap into Cosmic Energy. 

Liu Zhong swooped in, pulling her aside before another blow can be landed on her. 

"Don't let yourself be hit," coughed Aya. "That thing can sever our connection to Cosmic Energy somehow," she warned. 

Liu Zhong nodded. He channeled a huge ice burst, freezing the creature against a wall. He ordered Henry and Liang Chen to immediately retreat and tend to the wounded. 

"What about that?" asked Liang Chen. 

"I will handle it," said Liu Zhong firmly. 

Before Liang Chen can protest, the creature disintegrated itself into countless insect like bits, angrily swarming towards them. 

Liu Zhong threw fireballs, and the bits caught fire, quickly spreading and igniting the entire swarm into one huge fireball. 

It reformed itself into its humanoid form, wildly hitting itself to put the fire out. Before it can fully restore itself, a powerful, Cosmic Energy infused kick from Liu Zhong sent it flying out of the room, into a narrow corridor on the other end, smashing into a small electromagnet on a table. 

"Go!" he yelled, taking over as leader since both Aya and Captain Gao are down. 

"Hang in there!" replied Liang Chen, he Henry, Ramirez and the remaining Marines quickly pulled out the 3 wounded operators, retreating to the first floor, radioing the remaining Marines outside to reinforce them. 

Liu Zhong jumped, leaping into the corridor, landing gracefully in front of the creature. 

"Bullets cannot pierce your skin, you can reform your body at will, but fire can hurt you," he muttered, walking about, eyeing the creature. 

He extended his hands, and soon 2 small rods popped out of his gauntlets, one for each hand. He grabbed them, and they ignited, the plasma forming into the blade shapes and hand guards of Chinese butterfly swords, the preferred weapons of the Wing Chun school for armed combat. This is a melee weapon that Liu Zhong has custom made to his liking, a fit for his preferred use of Chinese martial arts for melee combat. He channeled in his Cosmic Energy into the rods, and soon the yellow blades turned blue, signifying a higher temperature and power output. 

The creature formed its right and left arms together, forming a giant staff that ended with a double-edged blade. 

It thrust the blade at Liu Zhong, attacking him with a horizontal slash to the neck. Liu Zhong moved out of the way, dodging the blow. The creature then lunged the blade forward in a 45 degrees slash. 

Liu Zhong caught it with his twin butterfly swords, pushing the blade downwards. The creature flicked its wrists, freeing the blade and swinging upwards, preparing to slash downwards into Liu Zhong's head. Liu Zhong parried the blow with both of his swords, firing a Cosmic Energy wave which pushed the creature back, then quickly diving, aiming for its legs. 

The creature then withdrew the blade, aiming it down then cutting up, breaking off Liu Zhong's lunge, and retreated back, trying to use its advantage in blade length to keep Liu Zhong far away.

It looked at its surroundings, figuring out why Liu Zhong choose this as their battle site. While longer blades does give it an advantage that is further augmented by its ability to reformat its body at will, the narrow corridor also limits its mobility and confines its strokes, unable to use full power in its attacks due to constraints. 

It charged, using the blade like a spear now. Liu Zhong moved sideways, locking the blade with his butterfly swords, pulling the blade one side while moving, changing positions with the creature. 

The creature broke the lock. Liu Zhong went on the offensive, slashing the sword in his right hand, while thrusting his left sword forward, aiming for the creature's right arm, locking it pushing its weapon up, with his right sword too pushing the creature's left arm up. 

Before the creature could react, Liu Zhong jumped, and rapidly slashed into both of its arms, cutting the weapon off, and finished with a slash across the torso. 

He then threw a giant block of ice into its head, before slashing its face and then kicking it down. 

The creature collapsed, and Liu Zhong breathed, panting, looking at it alertly. 

The severed arms disintegrated into bits. Alarmed, Liu Zhong immediately set it on fire, but it was useless, and the bits flew back to the creature, the arms growing back. 

Liu Zhong gulped, readying himself for round 2. 

The creature stood up. Despite lacking facial features, Liu Zhong can sense that its infuriated.

It then transformed its arms into a pair of Chinese butterfly swords, surprising Liu Zhong as it attacked, clearly using a crude but otherwise effective copy of Liu Zhong's Wing Chun blade work. 

Both slashed 45 degrees at each other with both of their swords, parrying each other's attacks. Liu Zhong seized an opportunity, locking its right sword with his right sword, leaving both with only their left swords to fight. 

They both slashed wildly with their left swords, both unable to break the other's defense. 

After a while, both stopped to conserve energy, waiting to find a moment to strike. 

The creature resumed first, only for Liu Zhong to catch an opening and lock the sword too. He then head butted the creature with his dragon horns, then freeing his swords, stabbing one into its torso again, and pushed forward, slashing deeply. 

The creature moved in pain, attacking Liu Zhong, forcing him to jump back to defend himself. 

Blue blood is spilled on the floor. Liu Zhong looked at the creature, surprised to see that its wound in the torso is not healing, and its previously severed arms are not fully connected back to its body. He turned around, seeing to his shock that some pieces of its body is attracted tightly onto the small electromagnet in the corner. 

"I see," he thought, realising that the creature's body is in fact one huge electromagnet, which is what allowed it to dismantle and reform its body at will. The small electromagnet had caught some pieces of its body when it's re-construction process was interrupted by Liu Zhong's kick, leading to some pieces going loose. 

"Plasma can cut through electromagnetic fields, this is why plasma bladed weapons can inflict damages that it cannot heal," he thought. 

The creature combined its arms together to form a giant broad sword now. 

Liu Zhong smiled, shutting off his butterfly blades, then the rod re-ignited, now forming a pair of deer horn knives, a bladed weapon consisting of two steel crescents crossing. This crossing produces four curved, claw like points, one of which is extended as the main blade. Its associated with the Baguazhang school of Chinese martial arts, which is the style Liu Zhong will use next. The combination of the deer horn knife's unique shape and the fast movements of Baguazhang makes it ideal for disarming and trapping an opponent's large weapon, such as a broad sword.